Flood waters rising in Bundaberg, Lockyer Valley

Updated
January 28, 2013 08:53:00

The Queensland SES has received 1800 calls for help in the past day - most were in and around Bundaberg. Floodwaters around the town are rising faster and higher than expected and running at around 80 kilometres per hour. Authorities there say they're preparing to rescue potentially more than 1000 people.

TONY EASTLEY: The Queensland SES has received 1,800 calls for help in the past day. Most were in and around Bundaberg.

Floodwaters around the town are rising faster and higher than expected. The speed of the water is exceptional - measured at 80 kilometres an hour.

Authorities there say they're preparing to potentially rescue more than 1000 people.

Further south in the Lockyer Valley more than 100 residents spent the night in evacuation centres. They're worried about a repeat of the devastating floods in 2011 which took the lives of more than a dozen locals.

Heavy rain has continued throughout the night and the valley town of Laidley has been cut off by floodwaters.

David Mark prepared this report.

DAVID MARK: The local disaster management group in Bundaberg has been caught unawares by the speed of rising floodwaters on the Burnett River.

Mal Forman is the chairman of the group and Mayor of the Bundaberg Regional Council.

MAL FORMAN: What's happening at the moment, we expect the nine metres to be reached at 8:30am this morning. The banks of the river have broken in a number of parts, places. And the river flow through the north Bundaberg area currently is at 40 knots or close to 80 kilometres an hour.

We have opened up another evacuation centre as the other one was up to capacity. Our suburbs are starting to expand where the water is encroaching on and we have about another four or five suburbs around the city area which that is occurring.

We're dealing with a 6,500 square mile area here of region, but we're focusing mainly at the moment on (inaudible) right in the city heart. We have another little suburb at Wallaville, which has just started evacuation there, which is part of the Burnett River flow.

We have three helicopters deployed here now and they're starting to do rescues from rooftops because there's a number of people who didn't get out in time and are on rooftops over north Bundaberg.

The numbers I haven't got but we are hoping that we can save as many people as we can through that process.

DAVID MARK: Mal Forman, river speeds of 80 kilometres an hour is extraordinarily fast. It must be very dangerous.

MAL FORMAN: It is very dangerous. Actually it's too dangerous even for the swift water rescue people to operate and work in.

DAVID MARK: The Queensland SES says there were nine swift water rescues overnight. There were no injuries.

West of Brisbane more than 100 residents spent the night in evacuation centres in the Lockyer Valley. They're worried about a repeat of the deadly floods that devastated the valley two years ago.

The Mayor of the Lockyer Valley Regional Council is Steve Jones.

STEVE JONES: I think a lot of people certainly were very proactive about their circumstances and they did leave their premises fairly early in the piece. And that was a good move really because it assisted us and assisted them.

DAVID MARK: He says heavy rains continued throughout the night. The town of Laidley has been cut off by floodwaters.

STEVE JONES: It's still raining here at the moment and if the rain doesn't let up, you know, certainly into this afternoon.

DAVID MARK: The weather system that's causing the floods in Queensland is now moving through coastal New South Wales.

Michael Eburn is from the State Emergency Services.

MCIHAEL EBURN: Flooding has been quite widespread across the north of the state and rivers haven't yet peaked. But it's been mainly minor to moderate flooding so there've been flood warnings issued for six river systems. So we've got flood warnings out for the Wilson and Richmond rivers, Tweed rivers, Clarence, Bellinger, Brunswick, and Hastings. So all up in the northern parts of the state.

TONY EASTLEY: Michael Eburn from the New South Wales State Emergency Service ending David Mark's report.